The synergy of CSAs

Farmers and consumers benefit from local Community Supported Agriculture

As the summer growing season approaches, Tompkins County’s Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSAs) are getting ready to serve their communities with fresh vegetables and other local food this year. 

 Full Plate Farm Collective is a unique, multifarm CSA striving to connect people, farms and food in a dynamic, energizing and mutually supportive community. It brings together food from its founding farms, Remembrance Farm in Trumansburg and Stick and Stone Farm in Ithaca, as well as a network of about a dozen other local growers.

Together, the growers farm over 100 acres of organic vegetables, which the collective offers through summer and winter CSA shares in the Ithaca area.

“Over the last six years we have been fortunate to grow a lot, and being a collective allowed us to engage a lot of different community partners,” said Molly Flerlage, Full Plate Collective’s CSA coordinator.  

Full Plate started in 2005 with 150 members and reached 800, its maximum number of members since it started, last season.

They plan on having 800 again this season and currently have about 100 shares to fill, Flerlage said. “We grew pretty quickly to about 500 and stayed there quite a long time,” she said. Then, the farms’ wholesale business largely went away during the pandemic.

“Members were looking to secure access to food at a scary time,” Flerlage said. “Fortunately, we see a lot of those people coming back, as we were able to sustain the growth.”

Each of the two core farms was able to independently maintain its wholesale and farmer’s market business, but both have been able to grow their CSA shares to be a much larger part of their business than in the past. “This allows us to hone in and serve our community the best that we can,” Flerlage said.

“The core of the CSA model is that folks pay for their membership upfront in late winter, early spring,” Flerlage said. “This gives the farmers a guaranteed market for the food they’re growing and gives them seed money, literally. Having that money upfront, the impact is huge on being able to invest on the coming season and to be able to buy all these seeds, knowing that it has a table that it’s going to land on. A lot of farming is a big leap of faith. A lot of time and effort and money goes into growing these things, and many times they don’t necessarily know people are going to buy them. They do their best to plan and make informed decisions, but there are no guarantees. The CSA gives them a guarantee.”

Flerlage said that having the CSA has allowed Full Plate to reach more corners of the community that it wouldn’t otherwise. “We have farms more out towards Trumansburg, in Danby and Lansing, and we’re able to connect,” she said.

At Nook & Cranny Farm in Brooktondale, farm steward Bob Tuori provides the local area with fresh vegetables from his three-and-a-half acres of vegetable gardens.

“I feel like three-fourths of our members, at least, are from Brooktondale, Caroline and Ellis Hollow,” Tuori said.

The farm usually has about six employees, plus Tuori, who said he puts in long hours of physical work every day during the growing season.

“The scale of agriculture is smaller,” Tuori explained. “It’s not even tractor-scale.” But out of that small piece of land, Tuori grows a large variety of produce so that his CSA members have plenty of different vegetables each week.

He said having the CSA is “indispensable.”

“You could grow some stuff and go to the market and sell it, but I don’t know how you would put all the labor in and not have stuff to sell for months,” he said, adding that Nook & Cranny Farm’s commitment to providing high-quality produce has paid off.

 “If you are really committed to supplying people with enough stuff that’s beautiful and presented nicely, and they’re happy to pay you a significant chunk of money, and you follow through and prioritize them as customers, they continue coming back,” he said, adding that “easily half of them pay all of it, 100%, before they receive anything.”

“That’s a big chunk of money, but it supports a crew, keeping up all the New York state employment regulations that go up drastically every year … all the insurance — it’s just unbelievable how much money you have to pay for insurance, workman’s comp, vehicle insurance. Many, many thousands of dollars.”

Nook & Cranny’s summer share options include the “personal” option for $620, “small” for $740, and “large” for $860. There are also spring and fall share options, which are for a shorter length of time and are less expensive than the 20-week summer shares.

Full Plate Farm Collective’s shares are available for $620 for 23 weeks for the market option, where members pack their own box. The “farmer’s choice” box share is $675.

“One share offers plentiful veggies for a two-adult household, with or without kids,” the Full Plate website states. “Envision a paper bag full to the top with fresh produce!”

Flerlage said the CSA estimates that its members pay about $25 per week for roughly $40-worth of produce, based on the average prices at local grocery stores.

Tuori said that people mostly likely pay a bit more for his vegetables compared to the grocery stores’ least expensive options, but he believes it is worth it.

“If you prioritize a plant-based diet where you eat whole foods, much of them being vegetables, $30 a week for a CSA share is not that big of a deal,” he said.  

What are the advantages to joining a CSA?

“You get guaranteed access to fresh produce throughout the season, which for us is June to November, which is pretty standard among CSAs in the area,” Flerlage said. “If we are facing things like crop failures or shortages, especially with this changing climate of ours, we prioritize the CSA. They are committed to us, and we commit to the members.”

Members of the Full Plate Farm Collective also have an exclusive invitation to the farms’ u-pick offerings, which are not available to the public.

The collective also shares a wealth of other resources, including recipes, storage tips and offerings from partner businesses.

The CSA works with local producers and is often able to provide members with items like local milk, cheese, meat, fruit, herbs and honey. Last season, Full Plate was able to provide its members with local, handmade tortillas.

“It’s really special to be able to come to one space and get so much local food in one spot, and as fresh as you can possibly get it,” Flerlage said.

In this way, the collective is supporting the local economy. “What goes around comes around to all of us,” Flerlage said.

There are about 10 locations throughout Tompkins County where members can pick up their traditional box share, if that is the option they choose. The CSA also offers home delivery within the city of Ithaca.

Nook & Cranny Farm offers a weekly pick-up at the farm, 424 Harford Rd., and at the three Ithaca Farmers Market locations: Dewitt Park, East Hill Plaza and Steamboat Landing. Tuori said he is partial to the Dewitt market, which he described as a “low-stress affair” in a convenient location for people who live downtown.

Full Plate holds weekly market-style pickups at Stick and Stone Farm, Press Bay Alley, Salt Point Brewing and Youth Farm Project during its season. Members can custom-pack their box full of the items they prefer. The markets allow for the most interfacing between the CSA and its members.

“It’s really special to see and to get to know folks, and they get to know the farm,” Flerlage said. “Watching people interact is really fun. There’s the kids and the over-the-top cuteness of watching them get excited over vegetables, or at u-pick, they’re excited to get their hands in the dirt, and it can be really sweet.”

The interpersonal aspects of the CSA are mutually beneficial, according to Flerlage.

“Our barn manager will sometimes have to run a crate to a pickup where I am, and she can see how excited and grateful everyone is and will say to me, ‘Wow, it reminds me of why we do what we do every day.’ It can be grueling and challenging work, and not everyone gets the opportunity to interface with the people who eat their food.”

Tuori agrees that interaction with the public is key, saying that he would not be anywhere near as interested in being a farmer if he did not have that connection with his consumers and supporters.

“To me, it would just be like mowing lawns for a living,” he said.

He has formed close personal connections within the community over the last 18 years since he founded the farm.

“On Sunday is an on-farm pickup, and people are always so grateful and happy to get their big box of vegetables,” Tuori said. “At the market, it’s probably even more fun. It adds a level of complexity.”

Tompkins County CSAs 

Bad Apple Farm   
badapplefarmstore.com
952 Lick St., Groton, NY 13073 
315-481-8503

Black Diamond Farm   
blackdiamondcider.com 
Trumansburg, NY 14886 
607-279-5112 

Fort Baptist Farm
facebook.com/ft.baptist.farm 
Coddington Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 
607-379-9049

Full Plate Farm Collective
fullplatefarms.com 
P.O. Box 6898, Ithaca, NY 14851 
607-379-2866 

Here We Are Farm 
herewearefarm.com
4341 Perry City Rd., Trumansburg, NY 14886 
206-660-8958 

Hopshire Farm and Brewery 
hopshire.com/csa-and-farm-stand
1771 Dryden Rd., Freeville, NY 13068  

Ithaca Organics
ithacaorganics.com/csa-2021
41 Fall Creek Rd., Freeville, NY 13068

Kestrel Perch Berries
ithacaberries.com 
220 Rachel Carson Way, Ithaca, NY 14850 
607-275-0272 

Nook & Cranny Farm 
nookandcrannyfarm.com 
424 Harford Rd., Brooktondale, NY 14817 
607-539-6580 

Sweet Land Farm
sweetlandfarm.org 
9732 Route 96, Trumansburg, NY 14886 

TC3 Farm CSA
tc3farm.com 
100 Cortland Rd., Dryden, NY 13053 
607-229-4195 

TC3 Farm CSA
tc3farm.com 
100 Cortland Rd., Dryden, NY 13053 
607-229-4195 

Youth Farm Project/Rocky Acres Community Farm 
youthfarmproject.org
23 Nelson Rd., Danby, NY 14850